COUNTDOWN: FUTURE & PAST

[cordibus]

It's been a week since the first network post. Upon waking up early Saturday morning, you notice that the app is not responding. Is it finally over, as strangely as it began?

Which makes explaining what happened impossible. Others have already tried to figure out more about it, but nothing has been working. Bringing it to a repair shop to get it looked at? No programs found. Even getting the phone completely wiped did nothing, as the icon just showed up a few minutes after they walked out of the store. Showed it to a family member? The minute you blinked or turned it around to show them, it simply wasn't there.

It's taunting you. Whoever programmed this is really good. Frighteningly so.

Saturday night rolls and still nothing from the application. The news this Saturday is nothing special. There's been another fire at night that was put out by the firemen and an instance of someone being outside. According to both departments, neither of the incidents are connected. It's just a case of someone who wasn't back home in time and unfortunate damage to a building that occurred with some of the habitats still sleeping inside. It is a tragedy, but no city can survive without any loss of life. It's simply mathematically impossible. It's notable enough that it gets second page billing and a blurb in the morning news, but nothing too huge.

At least you had assumed.

The warning bells of the Nightly Curfew ring across the city as a few people finish locking their doors for the night. As the last bits of light fade from the city, the night lights take over. Civilians are settling in for a late supper and preparations for school or work tomorrow.

Not you, however. There's been a damn headache building for the past hour and by now your ears are ringing. Food doesn't look appetizing and you feel an urge to go to bed early. Maybe you caught the flu or maybe it's just pre-Monday blues a day early, which makes it all the more frustrating. The flower festival is tomorrow!

Either way, a little shut-eye would be welcome at this point. You don't even think too hard about it, and the headache fades into blissful sleep.

...I am thou...thou art I...your chains will soon break away....
2AM and you snap awake. The strange foreboding voice of...something echos in your head. It's the only thing you can hear, with your headache gone, and the quietness of the city is fast asleep. You're not sure why, but the voice makes you get up and grab your phone.

It's humming softly. The icon is glowing again. Before you do, you take a look around and suddenly notice...nothing's moving. Nothing but you. Almost as if time was frozen.

Is that even possible?

You can't back down now. Pressing the button reveals another terms of agreement, but it looks quite different. It's almost...gentle?


It may take a while or near instantly, but you eventually take your finger and trace your name over the signature area to continue. You've gotten this far in any case and this one isn't trying to kill you...at least you think. Yet as your hand moves to write your name, it gets replaced into other letters. Another name that tells you nothing. Somehow you feel like you should, but it's...it's...

It stays there for a few more seconds, leaving you with your thoughts before the contract disappears.

You're back into that chatroom again. Questions pop up in rapid succession before you're even permitted to type anything else. Once more, it seems that you find yourself typing things that aren't matching up with what you really want to say.

At least...you think...

What is your name?
Write it here.

Do you think the future is unavoidable?
Yes | No

Do you consider yourself a bad person?
Yes | No

Have you ever killed someone/something?
Yes | No | Yes, but (insert your reason here)

Did you enjoy it?
Yes | No | It's complicated (but yes) | It's complicated (but no) | It's just complicated

Now share one or two of your darkest secrets with the rest of the group! It's like team bonding, we promise!
Write it down here.

With questions like that and nothing around you moving, you feel like it's going to be a very, very, very long night.

[OOC: Starting from now on, the network posts will allow users to post their names, but they will show up as their CANON ones. The user's persona can be added at the end, or not show up at all. Additionally, the occupations will still be censored.

MEMORY REGAIN: Right before their answers are posted, they will also get a longer flash of someone calling them by this name. The memory HAS to be someone calling them by their name. It could be both a good or a bad memory, that is up to you.]

Comments

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

Christopher had mostly forgotten that the app existed outside of checking it every now and again between projects and slow hours at the library. So it was more of a resignation when he finally realized the headache that had made him go to bed early, despite an eight page essay and a power point presentation he needed to finish for class next week, was once again a warning sign of this app acting up. Then there was a flash again...only it wasn't so brief and he

"You wanted power just like us!"

That was his voice, but he's never sounded that angry...or that oddly blank before. Nor has he ever yelled at someone about power before.

"So for power, you'll follow Kageyama's orders? You remember what Kageyama has done!"

And there's a flash of someone that seems familiar, despite the fact Christopher has never met someone with dreadlocks that wears a cape and goggles before, marching up to an odd version of himself.

"Genda, come with us!"


What is your name?
Koujirou Genda

Do you think the future is unavoidable?
Yes

Do you consider yourself a bad person?
No

Have you ever killed someone/something?
No

Did you enjoy it?
N/A

Now share one or two of your darkest secrets with the rest of the group! It's like team bonding, we promise!
I allowed my own inadequacies and jealousy to sway me into following someone I should not have, and thus harming a friend that did not deserve such ire.





Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias:292: While the need to not need the numbering system is now a relief.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias: Is whatever this supposed survey and these answers created worth such?

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias: Or what this new contract is supposedly hinting at regarding our selection for this app?

Alucard ⚔ Marchosias

[draculabackwards]

Or is this another phase of an experiment that we've been recruited to? I am uncertain what to believe at this point.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

If this pattern holds we'll see just how many phases this entire experiment may hold if in a week we're once more compelled to answer questions in ways you would not normally answer such.

Alucard ⚔ Marchosias

[draculabackwards]

This time we were forced to sign that contract about the Velvet Room? That sounds like a place one might buy a suit.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

Is it even an actual place or was it just a made up name is the big question. Nothing online has any information of such a place existing.
At least not one that would fit with these questions and app.

Alucard ⚔ Marchosias

[draculabackwards]

At the very least, we've been given slightly more information. Even if we don't know how exactly it applies. It does mention a future date of May 28th, so perhaps we may find out more then.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

I'll make certain my will is up to date just in case.


Though, the fact it's a date not part of the actual countdown makes me curious what will be revealed before the timer hits zero.

Chikusa Kakimoto ☸ Astaroth

[kokuyoyo]

It's similar to the question everyone had to answer the first time.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

Which shows the start of a pattern. Though how many more contracts are we unknowingly going to be bound to before this countdown reaches its end, and how many will contradict one another in some way or form?

[kokuyoyo]

Do you think this one contradicts the last?

[beastfang]

[Give him a moment because he's actually comparing the two contracts right now, because yes he has written both of them down]



Outside of the fact the first one basically mocks us for not knowing anything while still being bound to it, while this new one demure that aide will be given later one and only after we agree to be bound to them.

Though comparing them side by side is a bit alarming in regards to the fact we were forewarned a bit about this latest contract.

'You further acknowledge and agree that AppleNET and its affiliates shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods, death, night shifts, or services available on or through any such web sites or services.'

They blatantly state affiliates and plural at that.

[kokuyoyo]

[That's really admirable, and somehow the knowledge of someone going through all this work along with having to focus on it.... Something about it helps snap Ciro out of the strange fugue his mind has been in since he woke up.]

Then I guess everything else it warns us about has a decent chance of becoming relevant in the future... Maybe even the near future if so much is happening this quickly.

There's still the countdown.

[beastfang]

It almost feels as if it expects us to create a checklist of things it warns us about just to see how long each takes to come to pass.

Though why one would use night shifts of all phrasing amidst that list of things we can't blame them for is confusing still to me.


[We won't mention the death part because let's not.]

Pharos ☸ Ronove

[seasonsofdeath]

What's an ire?

[yeah he's ignoring your actual questions.]

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

[He is used to this, unfortunately.]

The simple definition is intense anger or wrath.

Pharos ☸ Ronove

[seasonsofdeath]

Oh. So you shouldn't have been mad at your friend?

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

I believe so.

I admit I don't exactly know what the answer given truly means or where it even came from to be honest. It sounds more like someone not myself.

Pharos ☸ Ronove

[seasonsofdeath]

Mine was kind of like that too.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

It would be nice if we were given context or some hint about what these answers mean.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: 10: I feel the same way.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: There's something deeper going on. I'm sure of that. And whether or not that actually was of our free will, that's the second time we've had to agree to something without understanding what it is.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: I don't like this.

[beastfang]

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias:The lack of any clues is frustrating.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias:And each new contract just binds us even more to whatever this is.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias:Even if it is making us use names that are clearly not our own for the most part.

[kouteipenguin]

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: The lack of any clues has got to be intentional. That contract felt like it was mocking us.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: Information will be provided? I doubt it. They'll probably just tell us whatever they want us to know to make us do what they want us to do or something.

[beastfang]

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias:Mocking seems to be a common thing, though perhaps this time it's possibly masking something else.

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias:Since most of us are now focused on possibly receiving answers in the near future instead of what was actually said in said contract.

[kouteipenguin]

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: the velvet room...

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: I don't understand most of what that was actually saying. So are the residents who made this app?

[beastfang]

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias:From what the first contract said they could just be affiliates.


Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias:Without anything really to point and say 'they made it' it's really hard to tell how many people are involved in some way with this app.